Vazhaithandu Kuzhambu Recipe – Banana Stem Gravy–Valaithandu Recipes

I try to include vazhaithandu recipes in my cooking at least once in a month as it has lots of health benefits. Whenever I go to Salem, my FIL buys me banana stem and banana flower because finding these vegetables in my place is very rare. Mostly I make Vazhaithandu juice ( Salt version) Or valaithandu thayir pachadi and sometimes poriyal or thogayal. I haven’t tried any gravies/ kulambu or kootu with it. So this time, I wanted to try some kuzhambu with banana stem. I got the recipe from HERE. I made some changes and tried it. It tasted good when mixed with plain rice adding ghee. Banana stem is a bland vegetable. It doesn’t absorb any flavor or taste within it. So in this gravy, the masala gives the taste more than the vegetable. Original recipe called for using black chana along with banana stem. But I had used only vazhaithandu as I wanted to consume more quantity of this vegetable.If you are looking for some different vazhaithandu recipe, try this one. You may like it . Lets see how to make banana stem gravy for rice with step by step pictures !

Banana stem gravy / Vazhaithandu Kuzhambu

How to make vazhaithandu kuzhambu/ Banana stem gravy for rice

Cuisine: South Indian

Category: Side dish for rice

Serves: Serves 4

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 250ml Banana stem - 1 no Salt & water - as needed Sambar powder - 1 tsp To grind Methi seeds/ fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp Urad dal - 2 tsp Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp Grated coconut - 1/3 cup Red chilli - 3 nos Water - as needed to grind Tamarind - Gooseberry size ( soak in water) To Temper Cooking oil or coconut oil - 1 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Urad dal - 1 tsp Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - Few Hing/asafetida - a pinch

METHOD

Soak tamarind in little water. Grind all the ingredients given under “To grind” adding tamarind to a smooth paste.  Set aside. Wash and chop raw banana stem into small pieces. Keep them immersed in water or buttermilk till use to avoid discoloration.  In a pressure cooker base, heat oil and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds, hing and curry leaves. Add the ground paste, 1/4 cup water and saute for a minute. Add 1 tsp sambar powder. Mix well. Squeeze the banana stem and add it to the cooker. Add 1 cup of water, required salt and mix well. Pressure cook in low flame for 2 whistles. Open the cooker after the steam is released. Mix well and check for taste. Add more salt if needed and more water if the gravy is too thick. Mix well and serve with plain rice adding ghee. Tastes the best when mixed with rice & ghee. Ghee helps to enhance the flavor of this gravy.Do add it ! Enjoy !

Note

Sambar powder is not mentioned in the original recipe.But I used it. Adjust the consistency of the gravy as you like. I made it semi thick. This gravy thickens as it cools down. So add more water whenever needed.

Try this healthy vazhaithandu gravy for a change. You may love it !

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Godhuma Rava Upma – Wheat Rava Upma Recipe

Wheat rava upma ( Godhuma rava upma in Tamil, Broken wheat rava/ cracked wheat rava or samba wheat rava in English ) is a healthy, easy to make breakfast & dinner recipe. I make it at least once in a week for our dinner using pressure cooker in an easy way. I was not a big fan of this upma but when I was pregnant, my doctor advised me to reduce the intake of rice due to gestational diabetes. On those days, my mom made this upma by adding more onions and vegetables just like kichadi. She makes it very well, soft, colorful, spicy and flavorful. Mom adds large quantity of sliced small onions which gives an additional flavor and taste for this upma. So I loved to have this upma every single day. From then, I started making this upma very often and till date I try to include this dish in our regular menu by keeping its health benefits in mind.

My mom makes it in a kadai and cooks it patiently whereas I cook it directly in a pressure cooker to finish the job quickly. Its a tummy filling breakfast/dinner recipe which is ideal for people under weight loss. Bachelors and working women would find this recipe helpful to make a quick and healthy breakfast or dinner. Friends, do include this easy, healthy Godhuma rava upma in your regular diet. I feel coconut chutney is the best side dish for this upma. But some people like to have it with sambar, sugar or even with curd. Lets see how to make broken wheat rava ( also known as cracked wheat rava upma) at home easily in a pressure cooker.

Do check out my Rava upma, semiya upma, Instant poha upma recipes !

Godhuma Rava Upma / Wheat Rava Upma Recipe

Godhuma Rava Upma / Broken Wheat Rava Upma Recipe - Healthy breakfast/ dinner recipe

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Breakfast recipes

Serves: Serves 2-3

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 250ml Broken wheat rava upma/ Godhuma rava - 1 cup Water - 3.5 cups Salt - as needed Chopped vegetables - 1/2 cup ( Carrot, peas, beans) Big onion or small onion - 1 no/ 15 nos Ginger – 1 inch piece Green chillies - 2 nos ( finely chopped) To temper Cooking oil - 2 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Urad dal - 2 tsp Chana dal - 1 tbsp Curry leaves - few

METHOD

Wash and chop the vegetables finely and set aside.Chop the onions, slice the green chillies finely or slit them. Heat oil in a cooker base. Splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal and curry leaves. Saute onions, ginger, green chillies and finely chopped vegetables. Mix well. Add water, required salt. When the water starts to roll boil, add wheat rava. Mix well till most of the water is absorbed by the wheat rava. When the mixture becomes semi thick, cover the cooker and keep the flame completely low. Put the weight valve and cook for one whistle. It takes nearly 8-10 minutes to cook. Switch off the flame and remove the cooker from the stove. Open the lid after the steam is released. Mix well with a fork like ladle. Serve hot with coconut chutney or sambar ! Garnish with freshly grated coconut and serve it hot if you like. Enjoy !

Note

If you don’t like to cook in pressure cooker, you can make the same in kadai. Just cover cook for sometime till the wheat rava cooks. It takes more time to cook. So mix the rava once or twice in the middle while cooking and add more water if needed. Add more chillies if you want spicy upma. For variations and to give mild tangy taste, you can add one small, finely chopped tomato along with onions.

Make this healthy cracked wheat rava upma for breakfast or dinner and enjoy !

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Thinai Urundai–Foxtail Millet Honey Balls –Thenum Thinai Maavum

Thenum Thinai Maavum is one of the most popular neivedyam recipes offered to Lord Muruga in Tamil nadu. Yesterday I made Thinai maavu urundai ( Foxtail millet flour laddu in English)for the first time on account of Skanda shasti. You can offer this for Karthigai deepam festival too.  I should thank my neighbor for suggesting me to try this. 

Traditionally speaking, foxtail millet (Thinai arisi) is dehusked, roasted, ground to a fine powder and then mixed with honey. But nowadays we get readymade foxtail millet flour( Thinai maavu) in all the organic & popular departmental stores. As I had a pack of flour in hand, I made these balls/ urundai very quickly and easily.I referred Viji’s blog for the idea. 

For variations, thinai urundai can be made with jaggery instead of honey.It is called as thinai maavu laddu. Honey or jaggery, both make this dish more healthy when combined with Thinai flour. Do try this healthy Thinai urundai/ Foxtail millet balls with honey for a change. You will like it !

Check out my detailed post on Health benefits of millets and my other millet recipes too !

Thinai urundai recipe

How to make Foxtail millet honey balls / Thenum thinai maavum - Neivedyam recipe for Lord Murugan!

Cuisine: South Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: 4 

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 5 Minutes

Total time: 10 Minutes

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 250ml Thinai maavu/ Foxtail millet flour - 1/2 cup Ghee - 1 tbsp Cashews - few Honey - 1.5 - 2 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

METHOD

In a kadai, melt ghee and roast the cashew pieces. When it starts to turn golden brown, add the measured 1/2 cup of thinai maavu /Foxtail millet flour and roast in medium flame for few minutes. Let it cool down completely. ( If you don't have foxtail millet flour,  you can dry roast whole foxtail millet till aromatic. Powder , sieve and use it). Do not add honey when the flour is hot. The balls will become chewy to taste. After the flour is completely cooled down, add honey to the roasted flour. Mix well and make balls. Arrange in a plate and offer to Lord Murugan. Get his blessings! Enjoy !

Note

Do not add honey when the roasted flour is hot. It should be cooled down completely. Add more honey based on your liking. In place of honey, you can use powdered jaggery. If you don’t want to make as balls, you can just mix the flour with honey and eat as it is.

Healthy, Thinai urundai with honey. You can make this at least once in a while to reap its health benefits !

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Keerai Masiyal Recipe Without Dal – Arai Keerai Masiyal/ Kadayal

I got this Keerai masiyal recipe without dal (also known as keerai kadayal) from my reader Priyadarshini. She shared some of her mom’s specialty recipes with me. This Arai Keerai masiyal is one among them. Last week, I tried it for our lunch along with Raw mango, drumstick vatha kuzhambu and shared a picture in my Instagram page too. In our family, we feed Keerai kadaiyal to one year old babies by making in a simple way adding garlic. But this recipe is entirely different from ours. So I was happy that I learnt and tried a new keerai recipe for lunch apart from my usual Keerai kootu, poriyal and sambar. Thank you so much Priyadarshini ! You can try this recipe if you want to consume more quantity of keerai in your diet. I guess this recipe works for mulai keerai and siru keerai too. Do include this healthy keerai recipe in your lunch menu and enjoy. Lets see how to make Keerai masiyal recipe with tomato, onion and tamarind.

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Green Gram Dosa Recipe – Pachai Payaru Dosa - Dosa Without Rice

This is not Andhra special Pesarattu dosa. It is a no rice, green gram + Urad dal dosa ( Pachai Payaru dosai in Tamil) recipe and it cannot be made instantly. Its batter should be fermented overnight like our usual idli,dosa batter. I tasted this dosa in my MIL’s house recently. She got this recipe from Sun tv’s Parambariya Maruthuvam by Dr.Sakthi Subramaniam. He shared this dosa recipe under diet food for weight loss. I am not under diet or doing anything special for weight loss, but still I wanted to try this dosa variety as it is a healthy, low calorie, protein rich dosa recipe without using rice. I made it for our breakfast today and loved its taste. It came out so thin like paper dosa but very soft in texture not crispy. But it was filling.We enjoyed it with coconut chutney. Weight watchers, do try this healthy dosa in your kitchen and share your feedback. Lets see how to make healthy green moong dal dosa at home !

Check out my chickpeas/Kabuli chana dosa without rice if interested !!

Green gram dosa recipe

Healthy, protein rich green gram dosa without rice

Cuisine: South Indian

Category: Healthy Breakfast

Yields: 20 dosa

Prep time: 20Hours

Cook time: 2 Minutes

Total time: 20H2Minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 250 ml Green gram - 1.5 cups White, round urad dal - 1/2 cup Salt & water - as needed

METHOD

Wash and soak the green gram and urad dal separately.Soak the green gram for 5 hours and urad dal for an hour. Grind the urad dal in a big mixie jar or using grinder to a smooth paste adding enough water. Remove the batter to a bowl.The grind the soaked green gram to a smooth paste adding water and salt. Mix both the batter well using your hands.( I used grinder to grind the batter.So I ground the urad dal batter first and added green gram to it for grinding further.If you use grinder, you can follow the same) The quantity of batter ie. the yield will be more if you use grinder :) Ferment the batter overnight or for 12 hours. The next morning, batter would have raised well and light in weight. Heat a dosa pan. Mix the batter thoroughly and pour a big ladleful of batter over the dosa pan. The consistency of batter should be like usual dosa batter. Spread it thin or thick as you wish.Keep the flame medium high and drizzle a tsp of oil around the dosa. Flip the dosa and cook the other side too.Remove it and serve hot with coconut chutney ! Enjoy !

Note

If you feel, the dosa is too soft, reduce the quantity of urad dal to 1/4 cup and try it.

Fermentation is very important else dosa will smell raw. You can grind the batter using mixie or grinder. Use ice cold water for grinding if using mixie. Add sufficient water to bring it to usual dosa batter consistency.

Enjoy this healthy, protein packed dosa with your favorite chutney or sambar for breakfast !!

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Red Rice Idli Dosa Recipe – Kerala Matta Rice Idli dosa - Healthy Idli Recipes

We all know Red rice has amazing health benefits when compared with our usual white rice. So I always think to include it in my regular diet. Last week I made this healthy red rice (Kerala Rosematta) idli recipe for the first time. I have tried varieties of idli recipes using millets, brown rice, oats and even with barley. 

When I saw 1/2 kg of Kerala red rice in my pantry which I bought for my Onam sadya, red rice idli & dosa flashed in my mind. I browsed through many recipes and watched some youtube video recipes too. Finally I came up with this version. Idli came out super soft and dosa was very flavorful except the color was dull white. I was very happy with the result and including this in my Idli varieties collection.

Sorry, I am not able to post this recipe with stepwise pictures as they got deleted by mistake. Please find the picture of red rice I used in this recipe. Lets see how to make this healthy, soft idli recipe using Kerala Red rice. 

Check out my Idli varities collection HERE

Red rice idli,dosa recipe

Red rice idli, dosa recipe - Healthy breakfast ideas

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Breakfast

Serves: 25 

Prep time: 18 Hours

Cook time: 15 Minutes

Total time: 18Hrs15Min

INGREDIENTS

1 cup = 200ml Red rice - 2 cups ( I used Kerala Red Rice) Salem Idli rice - 1/2 cup White round urad dal - 1/2 cup Thick Poha/Aval – 1 tbsp Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp Salt & water - as needed

METHOD

Wash and soak Red rice + Idli rice + poha together for 2-3 hours. Wash & soak urad dal + Methi seeds for 2 hours. Grind the soaked urad dal first adding water little by little in regular intervals. I used nearly 1 to 1.25 cups of water. Make a smooth, fluffy batter. Remove in a bowl. Grind the rice to a smooth paste adding required salt & water. Remove the batter and mix with urad dal batter. Use your hands and mix it well.  Allow the batter to ferment for 15 hours or overnight. The next day morning,batter would have raised a bit with sour smell. Batter din’t double for me. Mix the batter well and make idlis. Heat idli pot with water. Grease the idli plate with little oil and pour the batter. Steam the idlis for 10 to 15 minutes till the back of spoon comes out clean. Remove the idlis and serve hot with chutney & sambar. For making dosa, mix the batter well. Add little water if its very thick. Heat dosa pan, pour a ladleful of batter and spread it thin. Drizzle a tsp of oil around the dosa. Cook both the sides and remove. Enjoy ! I served it with  Chidambaram kathirikai gothsu and tomato chutney.

Note

Here I have used 5:1 ratio of rice & dal. You can use 4:1 if you use red rice alone. I used a small portion of white rice just for the taste. You can skip it if you wish.

Enjoy this healthy, super soft red rice idli recipe for your breakfast & dinner !!

I served it with  Chidambaram kathirikai gothsu and tomato chutney.

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Easy Walnut Chutney Recipe - Side dish For Idli,Dosa

Nowadays I started to look for some healthy chutney recipes other than my usual coconut chutney & onion,tomato chutney recipes.Recently I came across this walnut chutney recipe in a facebook page.Its recipe was very similar to my hotel style thick coconut chutney recipe.So this morning I tried it for our breakfast as a side dish for Samai idli/Little millet idli( Recipe yet to come).After having this chutney,Sendhil told its taste is very similar to peanut chutney.Its an easy to make,South Indian style chutney using less coconut.You can make it without coconut too.It was tasting good with Samai Idli & Dosa as well.If you don’t have walnuts in hand,you can prepare this chutney with Almonds/Badam or just with the skin of almonds.ie badam peel.It will come out well.Refer notes section for more variations.Lets see how to make Indian style,healthy walnut chutney recipe in detail !Check out my 40+ Chutney varieties HERE

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Manathakkali Keerai Kootu Recipe-Black Night Shade Recipes

Manathakkali Keerai kootu is a healthy side dish for rice.I think about manathakkali keerai(Black night shade in English) only when we get mouth ulcers and inflammations .It gives a good cure for liver & other stomach related problems.Apart from these,there are many more health benefits.So I treat this keerai as a medicine mostly.I usually make Manathakkali thanni saaru using fresh leaves and Vatha kuzhambu with dried berries.Its been my long time wish to try kootu recipe with it.But I was afraid of its bitter taste.My MIL told me to add more dal and coconut to suppress its bitterness.I followed the same and the kootu came out very well.This time I followed an easy method and cooked it directly in the pressure cooker just like paruppu keerai.Its taste was very close to hotel ones.Here I have used moong dal.You can replace it with toor dal or chana dal too.Friends,do try this easy,healthy kootu.It’s a good side dish for Vatral kulambu rice.Lets see how to make this South Indian style manathakkali kootu recipe.

Manathakkali keerai kootu recipe

Manathakkali keerai kootu recipe-Healthy,easy one pot keerai kootu recipe

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Side dish for rice

Yields: 3

Prep time: 15 Min

Cook time: 15 Min

Total time: 30Min

INGREDIENTS

1 cup = 200ml

Manathakkali keerai/Black night shade – 2 cups Mooong dal - 3 tbsp Salt & Water – as needed To Grind Grated coconut - 1/2 cup Rice flour - 1 tsp To Temper Cooking oil or coconut oil - 1.5 tbsp Mustard seeds -1 tsp Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp Small onion - 15 nos or Big onion - 1 no Tomato – 1 no Turmeric powder – 1/8 tsp Sambar powder - 1.5 tsp

METHOD

Remove the leaves from stalk and wash it twice.Chop them roughly and set aside.Chop the onions,tomato.Keep aside. Grind the coconut and rice flour to a smooth paste.Set aside. Heat oil in a pressure cooker base and splutter mustard seeds,jeera.curry leaves. Add onions, tomato and saute till transparent & mushy.Add the moong dal,saute for a minute.Now add the chopped keerai and saute until they shrink. Add 1 cup of water,sambar powder,turmeric powder and required salt. Cook it for one whistle in very low flame. After the pressure is released,add the ground coconut paste and boil the kootu for 5 minutes.Add some water if it thickens.Lastly add the coconut oil and switch off the flame. Transfer the kootu to a bowl aned close with a lid.

Note

For variations u can cook the leaves &dal separately and mix them as given in my keerai kootu recipe. Replace manathakkali with arai keerai,mulai keerai or palak and proceed as given above.

Healthy,One pot Manathakkali Keerai kootu is ready to eat with Kara kuzhambu & rice !!

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